In the past year, mobile first responsive web design has taken off. However, it’s not exactly a household phrase – not yet, anyway. For a forward thinking web shop, trying to sell a client, sitting on a 27-inch iMac, mobile first web design can be a challenge.  So why would one? If you are a forward thinking web shop projecting the user experience into the future and imagining your client’s visitors on a device other than a desktop PC, you should be. Think about the person in a moving car on their iPhone or Android, or perhaps a person on an iPad in a café looking for a product. Perhaps they’re on a device not yet invented. These are all distinct possibilities, and arguably more likely than someone on a fancy desktop PC. So why start there in the first place?

The answer is to design for mobile first and expand the design outward from there. The result is a website designed and optimized for every device a potential visitor may have, making the experience a friendly one, regardless of where and when they visit.

We’re excited about all the possibilities new devices bring to web design. Nick France Design will embrace mobile first responsive design and we’re guessing we’re not the only ones.

For more details on mobile first RWD, read Jason Grigsby’s article on the Cloud Four Blog.

After much testing, following the September launch of m.tampaelectric.com, Tampa Electric’s new mobile Web site, I felt it was high-time I posted the accomplishment here. The design, production and launch of this mobile site has been a year-long goal for me and I finally carved out the time in the schedule to meet this goal. Tampa Electric, a fairly conservative company, is usually a wait-and-see type culture as opposed to a “lets be the first and lead” when it comes to communication. However, this seemed to be an easy sell — from my boss, all the way through the executive board, everyone agreed that this was a great idea. Lucky for me as this was tied to my performance review goals and rating.

NickFranceDesign.com has a mobile web site as well. A different URL is not needed to access it as it utilizes a WordPress plugin called WordPress Mobile Edition. If you browse to this site on your mobile, you will be served the mobile edition by default. If you want to browse the full site, just scroll to the bottom of any page and click “Exit Mobile Edition.”